1. Field of Invention
This device is designed to clean moisture out of the inside of a woodwind instrument, but it can be used on other instruments. When performing on a woodwind instrument, it is very common for the instrument to become saturated from the moisture in the player's breath. The keys of the instrument may begin to stick, may make a clicking sound, and moisture may leak out through the open key holes. It is not uncommon to find the need to swab an instrument several times during a performance. To do this, given current methods, the instrument must be taken apart. This is impractical during performance as there may be insufficient time, and when re-assembled it may no longer be in tune with other instruments in the ensemble. The device allows the performer to swab the instrument without disassembling it, thus preserving the tuning of the instrument.
2. Description of Prior Art
Flutes and piccolos have traditionally been cleaned with a wooden or metal stick with a loop at the end. The player feeds a piece of cloth through the loop, then feeds the cloth and device through the individual sections of the instrument. Other woodwind instruments are cleaned by removing parts of the instrument and feeding a rigid device through it or pulling a rag through it. There are some inherent problems with these methods, in particular as it pertains to use during performance.
1. To clean moisture from an instrument using any of these methods, a performer must take the instrument apart.
2. The cloth may bunch up and become stuck in the instrument;
3. The metal or wood of a stick may come in contact with the inside of the instrument and scratch or damage it. Similarly, those devices that clean the instrument by lowering a weighted string and cloth through risk damage from the weight itself.
The Woodwind Cleaning Sleeve, U.S. Pat. No. 6,005,179 to Currie (1999) solves the problem of the size of the cloth and prevents damage, but it still has the following problems:
1. To use the device you must disassemble the instrument, requiring re-assembly and re-tuning of the instrument, which may be impractical during performance.
2. Because the device is not attached to the rod, but only fits over it, it can only be inserted into the instrument in one direction. It cannot be removed by reversing the direction of the insertion.
Similarly, other woodwind cleaners such as U.S. Pat. No. 3,739,420—Device for Swabbing the Bore of a Musical Instrument or U.S. Pat. No. 5,212,332 Swab for Wind Instruments require the instrument to be disassembled and a string/cloth device is inserted. In these examples, the player removes one or more sections of an instrument and feeds a string through that has a swabbing cloth on the end. As in the prior example, the problem remains that disassembling the instrument requires retuning which is impractical during performance.